


two in the bush

by sasspan



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: HeartGold & SoulSilver | Pokemon HeartGold & SoulSilver Versions
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-02 02:23:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17255858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sasspan/pseuds/sasspan
Summary: There was a girl sitting on the front steps of Professor Elm’s laboratory.





	two in the bush

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Skylark](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skylark/gifts).



> Hi Skylark!! I know I'm posting this late, but I was fascinated by your Leaf and Lyra request, and how you perceived their differing views on pokemon. So here's a (very late!) holiday treat :) I hope you like it, and happy new year!

There was a girl sitting on the front steps of Professor Elm’s laboratory. 

She was tall and very brown. Brown face, brown hands, a mane of wild brown hair around her shoulders. She was sitting with her legs all bent up, staring down between her feet. 

“Hi,” said Lyra.

The girl looked up, surprised, and then smiled. Her eyes were brown, too, with green flecks in them. “Hi.” 

Her name was Leaf, she said, and she was waiting for Professor Elm. She had that funny Kanto lilt to her voice, almost musical, but Lyra didn’t say anything because Mom had told her that pointing out that kind of stuff was rude. 

Instead she stared covetously at the scuffed shoulder bag that lay next to Leaf. The flap was half open; inside, Lyra could see the shells of several bright red pokéballs peeping through, shining like forbidden fruit.

Leaf noticed, and her smile warmed. “You like pokémon?”

Lyra nodded. She liked them more than anything in the world. 

“Do you have any?”

“No.” 

Leaf stretched her legs out in front of her. Her legwarmers were worn and dusty. “I can show you some, if you like.”

* * *

She didn’t take the pokéballs out of her bag like Lyra expected; instead, Leaf took her past the lab, out beyond the town limit and into Route 29. There, Leaf gently guided them into a cluster of shrubby-looking trees, surrounded by tall grass that swayed gracefully in the breeze. 

“I found them today morning,” she whispered to Lyra.

_Found what?_ Lyra wanted to ask, but then she saw it. Settled in the tall grass, in the dappled sunshine of the afternoon, was a nest. A pidgeotto was perched on the edge; inside, a raggedy brown lump of feathers was wriggling. 

“Just hatched,” murmured Leaf, and Lyra bobbed her head, wonderstruck. The baby pidgey was so _small_. She had seen baby pokémon before, at her grandparents’ house, but they were all caught pokémon, sturdy and boisterous straight out of the egg. This pidgey, tiny in the great wilderness of Route 29, seemed a thousand times more fragile. She suddenly wished Ethan were here with her. He would have loved it just as much. 

The pidgey shifted, and revealed another surprise.

“Another egg!” Lyra gasped, before she could stop herself; the mother pidgeotto looked up with a sharp gleam in its eye. 

“Shhhh,” said Leaf. “Look, it’s trying to hatch, too.”

She was right; there was a faint tapping sound coming from inside the second egg. Cracks fractured its surface, and it shook slightly, the creature inside trying to break free. With a sudden, more forceful tap, a piece of the shell fell away, allowing a tiny pink beak to poke through. 

Lyra waited with bated breath. The egg wiggled slightly, and then stilled. The pink beak emitted a mournful chirrup. 

Nothing else happened. 

Lyra stared. Something twisted very hard in her chest. What if it couldn’t get out? What if it was stuck in its egg?

Why wasn’t the mother pidgetto helping its baby? She couldn’t understand. She wanted to reach out, to peel the shell away, to cup the baby in her hands and raise it up. 

Only Leaf’s hand on her shoulder stopped her. 

“Easy,” said Leaf softly. “I know it’s tough, but just watch.”

The pidgeotto trilled softly. The egg resumed its twitching for a moment before stopping once more. The pidgeotto trilled again, insistent. The egg wobbled, harder this time, and the little beak pecked at its shell, again and again, until more of it flaked away. 

With a final flurried burst, the second baby pidgey tumbled out into the world. 

“ _Oh,_ ” said Lyra, past the lump in her throat. This baby was even smaller than the first, hardly the size of her palm. 

Leaf’s hand was still warm on her shoulder. “That’s how it is out here,” she said. Lyra turned her head, and saw that Leaf was looking at the nest with a strange, unreadable look in her brown-green eyes. Her cheek was flecked with little white scars, the kind that a lot of trainers had. “It might seem hard, but sometimes it’s what needs to be done. It makes them stronger. More ready to fight. More ready to win.”

* * *

They walked back to the lab in silence. Professor Elm was waiting at the front door.

“Ah, Leaf,” he said, scratching absently at his head. “I hope Lyra hasn’t been bothering you too much.”

“Not at all, Professor,” said Leaf. “Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“Oh, that’s fine. Did you bring in your catch samples from Hoenn today?”

Leaf rolled the shoulder on which she had slung her scuffed-up bag. “Right here. Should we go in and get started?”

“Wonderful. I’ll go set up.”

Elm disappeared into the lab, and Leaf turned to smile at Lyra. “Well,” she said. “See you around, Lyra.”

“Yeah,” said Lyra. She made to go, but then stopped. “Thanks for showing me the pidgey today,” she recited politely.

Leaf laughed, her wild brown hair tumbling back, catching sunlight. “Sure. Anytime.”

Lyra lingered, staring. She’d thought Leaf was a trainer, but maybe she helped Professor Elm with his research? But she was so dusty, so scarred. Like she had been everywhere, seen everything. 

She wanted to ask…but maybe that was rude. So she just nodded again, and went home. 

In her room that night Lyra stood in front of the little vanity mirror and tugged the bands out of her pigtails, so her hair fell down along her cheeks. It didn’t bush down her back. It just sat there, like a bundle of feathers.

* * *

The next day, the steps in front of the lab were empty. 

“Oh, Leaf? She’s back on the road,” said Professor Elm, when Lyra asked. “No, I don’t know where. She might not even be in Johto anymore…Oak sends that girl everywhere.”

Lyra frowned. “Do you know when she’ll be back?” 

“Hmm?” Elm’s gaze was fixed on Ethan, who was organizing papers at the back of the lab. “I’m not sure. Maybe not for months.”  


Lyra sighed to herself. So much for asking questions.

She was nearly out the door when Elm said, “Oh, that’s right. I think she left something for you on my desk.”

On Elm’s desk there was a single, bright red pokéball. Underneath it was a slip of paper with a hastily scrawled pokégear number; inside it was a little pokémon, bubble-blue and bouncy-round.

**Author's Note:**

> (game mechanics: azurill evolves via high friendship, while marill evolves via level-up.)


End file.
